Nicola Sturgeon 'posturing' over Scottish foxhunting review

The Scottish Countryside Alliance (SCA) highlights new police testimony that
the existing laws are not being broken and claims the First Minister only
ordered a review to spare her blushes over the controversial decision of SNP
MPs to block David Cameron’s attempt to relax the rules in England.

Nicola Sturgeon is indulging in “political posturing” over toughening Scotland’s foxhunting laws after police confirmed there is “no evidence” that the existing legislation is being flouted, an angry country group has said.

Jamie Stewart, the organisation’s director, pointed to evidence given by two of Police Scotland’s most senior wildlife crime officers to a Holyrood inquiry this month that they can find no evidence that Scotland’s mounted foxhound packs are acting outside the law.

The officers told MSPs that footage of hunts around Scotland filmed by the League Against Cruel Sports (LACS), and passed onto them by Aileen McLeod, an SNP Environment Minister, did not provide evidence of a crime.

Assistant Chief Constable Malcolm Graham and Detective Chief Superintendent Sean Scott also rejected claims that the number of illegal raptor killings being reported in Scotland is the “tip of the iceberg.”

Ms McLeod wrote to Mr Stewart on June 25 last year stating that SNP ministers had “no intention” of amending the Protection of Wild Mammals (Scotland) Act 2002, which allows hunts to use an unlimited number of dogs to flush out but not kill foxes.

But less than three weeks later Ms Sturgeon and her Nationalist MPs announced they would block any attempt by Mr Cameron to relax the rules in England, where only two dogs are allowed, to bring them into line with Scotland.

Mr Stewart argued the Scottish Government’s announcement of a review was merely a face-saving exercise to prevent the SNP being accused of hypocrisy, but the police testimony proved it was not justified.

“They have painted themselves into a corner at Westminster by getting involved in English politics but there’s absolutely no evidence of a problem in Scotland,” he said.

He described the move as “cynical” but added: “Nobody wants to challenge Nicola Sturgeon on that political posturing.”

Foxhunts in England operate under tighter rules Photo: Christopher Pledger for the Telegraph

The SCA, which represents a wide range of rural interest groups, argued that Scotland’s nine mounted hunts are needed to control fox numbers and prevent them attacking livestock and protected species, including wading birds.

Since Scotland’s foxhunting legislation was introduced in 2002, there have been ten cases of hunting foxes with dogs reported to the Crown Office. Three prosecutions resulted in a conviction but none of these were associated with mounted hunts.

LACS claimed its footage showed mounted hunts taking place without gunmen waiting to shoot foxes after being flushed out. The animal rights group alleged this showed that the foxes were really being killed by dogs, in breach of the legislation.

But ACC Graham told Holyrood’s rural affairs committee on January 13 that he had reviewed the wider evidence and “it did not lead to us being able to establish a crime.”

He welcomed the Scottish Government’s review as he said there had been “a number of cases” where there had not been sufficient proof to show whether a crime had occurred.

But challenged directly by Alex Fergusson, a Tory MSP, that there was no evidence mounted hunts were operating outside the law, Det Ch Sup Scott confirmed: “That is correct.”

Nicola Sturgeon said her MPs would vote against changes to the laws governing foxhunting in England Photo: Geoff Pugh/The Telegraph

It also emerged that the Scottish SPCA solely investigated only 10 wildlife crime cases that were reported to prosecutors in 2013/14 instead of 18, which was the total incorrectly recorded in an official report. This was down from 36 four years previously.

Dismissing the “tip-of-the-iceberg” theory about raptor killings, ACC Graham said: “It is more likely to be the case that we are hearing about a greater proportion of cases and probably less crime is happening.”

Mr Fergusson, the MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, said he was “astonished” that the Scottish Government had ordered a review of foxhunting legislation supposedly on the basis of the LACS footage.

He said: “There seems to be a view there has been so few successful prosecutions that hunting organisations are getting away with it but I would argue they are acting within the law.”

A Scottish Government spokesman said: “In announcing a review of the Protection of Wild Mammals (Scotland) Act, we have acknowledged the concerns of many people and taken the most reasonable next step.

"A lack of prosecutions is not an indication of the effectiveness or otherwise of any piece of legislation. The review will determine that, and the Scottish Government hopes that everyone with an interest will take this opportunity to contribute.”

Robbie Marsland, director of League Against Cruel Sports Scotland said: “The League Against Cruel Sports filmed at half the hunts in Scotland to see if they were flushing to guns as advertised on their websites. We did not see one shotgun.”

“This left us highly suspicious that they were hunting as usual. We bought this to the attention of the Scottish Government and we are very pleased that, like us, they believe that a review of the Scottish Legislation on foxhunting is urgently needed.

“We look forward to submitting a full and comprehensive package to Lord Bonomy the chairman of the government Review.”